Hooray for Highland Woodworking

As some may have seen, I ended up with quite a saga when I purchased by thickness planer from Highland Woodworking.

To summarize, I ended up with what I believe to be a one-off lemon of a planer—through no fault of Highland whatsoever. I ordered a product from them, they had one in the box from the manufacturer, and they sent it to me. Just what they were supposed to do.

But, after the experience unfolded as documented in my review of the planer, Chris Bagby, the owner of Highland Woodworking, contacted me both in the reviews and personally, and spent the majority of the weekend emailing with me, checking in on my progress to try to solve the issues I was having, and really going the extra mile.

I am in fact sending the planer back—just too much work to try to get a tool working—and as you can see from the comments on the review page, Chris is taking it back and handling the shipping as well. I don’t want to share his secrets here, but let’s just say he has even gone additional miles in our personal communication pathway to make sure I’m happy with the final solution.

I can tell you that, while still not thrilled with the planer itself, I am THRILLED with Highland Woodworking’s customer service, and plan to go out of my way to buy from them again in the future. While we usually feel disconnected from the people that we do business with, I can say quite honestly that Chris and Highland went out of their way to make sure I was happy here. Of course it’s good for his business to make sure everyone here sees that he’s treating me well, but he also went out of his way in areas not visible to anyone but me to make sure I was treated exceptionally well, and I will remember that next time I need to buy a tool.

I’d say if you have the opportunity to purchase from them, you should do so.

4 comments so far

Glad to hear you received exceptional customer service from Chris and Highland. Customer service is one place a lot of companies no longer seem to care about anymore, or at least they don’t make it a priority.

Apparently there still are a few of them out there that do care, such as Highland Woodworking.

-- Jonathan, Denver, CO "Constructive criticism is welcome and valued as it gives me new perspectives and helps me to advance as a woodworker."

That’s great to hear you have a acceptable resolution.I can tell you point blank… you’ll love the DeWalt!I have a 734. The only set up I had to do on first run was unfold the in/out feed tables and adjust the height of the cutter head for the first cut. That took about oh… 2 1/2 mins. Oh yeah I did have to set up the dust chute and plug it in, so that makes about 3 1/2min total.have fun!

I know some folks are going to make assumptions about me here by what I am going to say, and I must say right here and now, I don’t have anything at all to do with Highland Woodworking. As far as I can recall I haven’t even ever personally done business with them. But I have heard good things about them as a business is all…

I saw your review, and I must say your initial assesment of Highland shocked me as I had always heard they were a stand up kind of company with a good customer focus. I would hope that they had kept that.

I am glad to hear that you took the effort to post the updates on your experiences with them.

I agree that any company that takes their customers for granted should be called to account, but then again, those that give great customer service should likewise be given due credit. It appears you have done both. And I for one applaud that.

There are far too many people that will fuss and gripe about a company without giving them a chance to make things right, or when the company does right, they stay tight lipped about it. I would love to see more posts like yours saying that company A.B. C. or D made things right…

Atlanta is about 5 hours North of me. I usually stop in at Highland 2-3 times a year. I’ve also attended three classes there. It’s a great place.

For those who are within reach of Atlanta, Highland is having their “one day Winter sale” on Saturday (1/29) and on the 30th, there will be a hand tool workshop with a Lie-Nielsen factory rep. There are restaurants and botiques close by so your wives can enjoy the visit also.